Neurofibromatosis type 1 associated with pheochromocytoma: a case report and a review of the literature

Abdominal tumors in patients with neurofibromatosis type I: Genotype-phenotype relationships

BACKGROUND

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors have been detected in 25% of the necropsies performed on NF1 patients, but have been reported only in 7% of NF1 patients in the largest series. Such data imply an important gap between the true presence of tumors and those diagnosed. Few genotype-phenotype relationships have been described but to date none referring to abdominal tumors.

OBJECTIVES

Evaluate retrospectively the efficacy of a regular and proactive follow-up of NF1 patients to early diagnose abdominal tumors and report their mutations.

METHODS

Cohort study performed between 2010 and 2020, with 43 NF1 adult patients followed at our Dermatology department.

RESULTS

Eight abdominal tumors were diagnosed in six patients, meaning that 14% of the followed patients developed an abdominal tumor. Five patients (83%) were asymptomatic. Five (83.3%) had a family history of NF1 with abdominal tumors (patients 1,2 and 3,4,5 were relatives).

CONCLUSIONS

Although currently gastrointestinal routine screening investigations for asymptomatic patients are not recommended in the guidelines, the family aggregation in our series suggests it should be considered a close follow-up of the relatives of a patient with an NF1-related abdominal tumor. Also, for the first time, two mutations [c.2041C > T (p.Arg681Ter) and c.4537C > T (p.Arg1513*)] have been associated with family aggregation of abdominal tumors in NF1 patients.

Clinical Practice Guideline for Screening and Management of High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents

These pediatric hypertension guidelines are an update to the 2004 "Fourth Report on the Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents." Significant changes in these guidelines include (1) the replacement of the term "prehypertension" with the term "elevated blood pressure," (2) new normative pediatric blood pressure (BP) tables based on normal-weight children, (3) a simplified screening table for identifying BPs needing further evaluation, (4) a simplified BP classification in adolescents ≥13 years of age that aligns with the forthcoming American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology adult BP guidelines, (5) a more limited recommendation to perform screening BP measurements only at preventive care visits, (6) streamlined recommendations on the initial evaluation and management of abnormal BPs, (7) an expanded role for ambulatory BP monitoring in the diagnosis and management of pediatric hypertension, and (8) revised recommendations on when to perform echocardiography in the evaluation of newly diagnosed hypertensive pediatric patients (generally only before medication initiation), along with a revised definition of left ventricular hypertrophy. These guidelines include 30 Key Action Statements and 27 additional recommendations derived from a comprehensive review of almost 15 000 published articles between January 2004 and July 2016. Each Key Action Statement includes level of evidence, benefit-harm relationship, and strength of recommendation. This clinical practice guideline, endorsed by the American Heart Association, is intended to foster a patient- and family-centered approach to care, reduce unnecessary and costly medical interventions, improve patient diagnoses and outcomes, support implementation, and provide direction for future research.

Pheochromocytoma in Neurofibromatosis Type 1: When Should it Be Suspected?

OBJECTIVE

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) carries an increased risk of pheochromocytoma. Most experts recommend that NF1 patients be screened for pheochromocytoma if hypertension develops. We sought to compare NF1 and non-NF1 patients with pheochromocytoma.

METHODS

Retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected database of all patients undergoing pheochromocytoma resection by a single surgeon from 2003-2012. Statistical significance was evaluated using Fisher's exact test for categorical variables and the Wilcoxon rank sum test for continuous variables.

RESULTS

Of 56 patients undergoing pheochromocytoma resection, 6 (11%) had NF1. All 6 (100%) NF1 patients had pheochromocytoma diagnosed incidentally during work-up for another condition, whereas 28 of 50 (56%) non-NF1-associated pheochromocytomas were diagnosed incidentally (P = .071). Hypertension was present in 1 (17%) NF1 patient and in 37 (74%) of the non-NF1 patients (P = .011). Tumors were significantly smaller in NF1 patients compared with non-NF1 patients (median tumor dimension, 2.75 cm vs. 5.9 cm, respectively; P = .014).

CONCLUSION

Although NF1 patients have a well-known increased risk of developing pheochromocytoma, in the current series, all NF1 patients referred to the surgeon for adrenalectomy had pheochromocytoma diagnosed incidentally. Nevertheless, NF1 patients had significantly smaller tumors and less hypertension than other patients treated for pheochromocytoma, perhaps due to a higher frequency of imaging occasioned by their other neoplasms. The common recommendation to screen for pheochromocytoma when hypertension develops would have failed to spur screening in 83% of these NF1 patients. Routine screening for pheochromocytoma in all NF1 patients may be warranted after evaluating whether this is cost-effective in reducing morbidity and mortality.

Neurofibromatosis type 1 associated with pheochromocytoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumors: A case report and literature review

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disorder associated with neurofibromin 1 (NF1) gene mutation, which generates an increased risk of variety of tumor types. The current study reports a case involving NF1, pheochromocytoma (PHEO) and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). A 56-year-old man presented with abdominal pain and polypnea. Clinical investigation revealed multiple diffuse soft-tissue lesions throughout his body, and pigmented macules on the skin. Imaging analyses revealed thoracic scoliosis, multiple subcutaneous nodules in the abdomen and trunk, and a 7.0×7.7×8.9-cm oval-shaped, cystic mass in the left upper abdominal cavity. Immunohistochemical staining indicated that S-100 protein and synaptophysin were highly expressed in adrenal gland neoplasm, whilst CD117 and CD34 were highly expressed in small intestine tumors. The overall clinical and pathological finding suggested a diagnosis of NF1, giant PHEO and small intestinal stromal tumor. In addition, a literature review was conducted to identify the specific clinical features of patients with this condition. Only 11 similar cases have been reported worldwide. In the present study, paroxysmal hypertension occurred in the majority of patients, and GISTs tended to be located in the small intestine. In addition, the present study demonstrated that many of the patients had a poor prognosis. Therefore, the present study indicates that NF1-PHEO-GIST is a special type tumor with varied clinical symptoms, which may be associated with an increased risk for poor prognosis; however, more studies are required to confirm this.

A resected case of liver metastases from extra-adrenal retroperitoneal paraganglioma with von Recklinghausen's disease 16 years after the initial surgery

The patient was a 46-year-old man who had undergone resection for a bulky retroperitoneal tumor 16 years previously during a follow-up for von Recklinghausen’s disease. Histopathological examination of the resected specimen showed that the tumor was an extra-adrenal paraganglioma. After the surgery, he had survived without any recurrence of the tumor. However, 16 years after the initial surgery, liver tumors were identified, and he was referred to our hospital for further investigation and treatment. Abdominal imaging modalities showed three masses in the left lateral segment of the liver. Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography showed an abnormal uptake of fluorodeoxyglucose corresponding to the mass lesions. The patient was diagnosed with a metastatic paraganglioma based on histopathological examination of a liver mass biopsy. The patient underwent left lateral sectionectomy of the liver. Histopathological examination of the resected specimen revealed proliferating cells with basophilic cytoplasm and oval densely stained nuclei arranged in an alveolar pattern, which was similar to the findings of the initial resection specimen. Immunohistochemical staining was positive for synaptophysin and chromogranin A. Based on these findings, the resected tumors were histopathologically diagnosed with liver metastases from the retroperitoneal paraganglioma. We concluded that this is an extremely rare case of liver metastases occurring long after the initial resection of extra-adrenal peritoneal paraganglioma with von Recklinghausen’s disease.

Genotype-phenotype associations in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1): an increased risk of tumor complications in patients with NF1 splice-site mutations?

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a complex neurocutaneous disorder with an increased susceptibility to develop both benign and malignant tumors but with a wide spectrum of inter and intrafamilial clinical variability. The establishment of genotype-phenotype associations in NF1 is potentially useful for targeted therapeutic intervention but has generally been unsuccessful, apart from small subsets of molecularly defined patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical phenotype associated with the specific types of NF1 mutation in a retrospectively recorded clinical dataset comprising 149 NF1 mutation-known individuals from unrelated families. Each patient was assessed for ten NF1-related clinical features, including the number of café-au-lait spots, cutaneous and subcutaneous neurofibromas and the presence/absence of intertriginous skin freckling, Lisch nodules, plexiform and spinal neurofibromas, optic gliomas, other neoplasms (in particular CNS gliomas, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs), juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, rhabdomyosarcoma, phaechromocytoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, juvenile xanthogranuloma, and lipoma) and evidence of learning difficulties. Gender and age at examination were also recorded. Patients were subcategorized according to their associated NF1 germ line mutations: frame shift deletions (52), splice-site mutations (23), nonsense mutations (36), missense mutations (32) and other types of mutation (6). A significant association was apparent between possession of a splice-site mutation and the presence of brain gliomas and MPNSTs (p = 0.006). If confirmed, these findings are likely to be clinically important since up to a third of NF1 patients harbor splice-site mutations. A significant influence of gender was also observed on the number of subcutaneous neurofibromas (females, p = 0.009) and preschool learning difficulties (females, p = 0.022).

Safe performance of spinal anesthesia in a critical patient with neurofibromatosis, pectus carinatum, and temporomandibular joint dysfunction: A case report

BACKGROUND

Neurofibromatosis is a syndrome caused by the abnormal deposition of neural tissues of the nervous system, endocrine system, visceral structures, and skin. On the other hand, pectus carinatum and temporomandibular joint dysfunction are illnesses that adversly affect the respiratory system and cause additional problems in airway management.

CASE PRESENTATION

Fifty-eight-year-old Turkish male patient had neurofibromatosis, pectus carinatum and temporomandibular joint dysfunction. The case was due to be operated on with the diagnosis of incarcerated umbilical hernia. Spinal anesthesia was successfully performed and the duration of the surgery was 1 hour. No postoperative complications were observed and he was discharged from the hospital on the 3rd post-operative day.

CONCLUSION

The anesthetic management of patients with neurofibromatosis requires attention to all possible abnormalities and associated disturbances. Furthermore, the presence of pectus carinatum and temporomandibular joint dysfunction also increase the potential risks. The operation was successfully completed with spinal anesthesia that was carefully applied upon taking the required measures and considering all pathologies that may accompany the case and complications that may occur.